By Tien-Li Loke Walsh The H-1B season starts on April 1, 2014 when USCIS begins accepting H-1B visa petitions for FY 2015-2016 (i.e. an October 1, 2014 start-date). Last year, for the first time since 2008, USCIS reached the cap within…
Blog Archives
Opinion & commentary.
Government Shutdown: Hiring a Foreign National Without a Social Security Number
Have a new foreign national hire that can’t obtain a SSN because of the federal government shutdown? Wondering how to put your new hire on payroll? The Social Security Administration (SSA) is just one of the many federal agencies that…
Legal Permanent Residents in CA May Soon Be Allowed to Serve as Jurors
AB 1401 (http://goo.gl/3lgWEY), a bill that could make California the first state to allow “lawful permanent immigrants” to serve in the jury, clears the assembly floor (by a vote of 48-28), and heads to the Governor’s desk for signature. …
The Demise of DOMA: USCIS Now Granting Green Cards to Same-Sex Married Couples
Within two days of the monumental Supreme Court 5-4 ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) Section 3, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas announced that it will grant green cards to petitioning same-sex…
The Politics of ‘Discharge Petition’
By Tien-Li Loke Walsh Despite the Senate’s passage of the the immigration reform bill, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made it clear that he will not bring up the bill to a vote without that majority support of House Republicans. This Washington…
Posted in Blog
Impact of Proposed Wage Increase Requirement for H-1B Professionals
By Tien-Li Loke Walsh A report entitled Analysis: A Minimum Wage of $128,000? The Impact of Immigration Legislation on Salaries and U.S. Competitiveness was released by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). It examines the provisions on pending bills…
Posted in Blog
Immigration This Week: The Week Before The Senate
By Tien-Li Loke Walsh On Monday, the bipartisan Senate immigration bill, S.744 will be up for debate on the full Senate floor.While some senators, including one of the bill’s author, Sen. Marco Rubio, do not believe that it will get…
Senate Judiciary Committee Moves Immigration Reform Bill to Senate Floor
By Tien-Li Loke Walsh After debating over 200 of the 300 proposed amendments to S. 744, “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” the Senate Judiciary Committee finally clears the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform bill for full Senate…
Travel Tips For F-1s During Cap-Gap Extension
By Tien-Li Loke Walsh and AILA Students & Scholars Committee (Reposted. Original article by +AILA National) Now that USCIS has completed the H-1B lottery, many F-1 students who filed H-1B petitions and were accepted as part of the lottery are eligible for cap-gap…
Immigration Reform Bill Markup – Day 2
By Tien-Li Loke Walsh “[T]he most controversial measure is a proposal to expand the visa program for highly trained workers, known as the H-1B program. The provision would raise the annual cap on H-1B visas from 65,000 to 110,000, with…
